We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michael Wade Paull a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Michael Wade thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

To be successful, one must be able to take the bitter with the sweet. If you can experience a defeat and learn from it, then you already come out ahead. If you find positive results with certain methods, expand those methods sincerely. If you have a failure, use it as a learning experience. Find out what went wrong and change it. Don’t be afraid to try again. Sometimes, it might even take more than once. The trick is to use discretion in your new retooled effort. You can set limits if you see that results show an uptick, then increase the investment. If another loss occurs, then terminate. But learn a lesson from
it no matter what.
I have experienced this phenomenon at various times of my life, both professionally and personally. On a professional level, I went to school at night for years to change careers. I quit a successful carpenter job to take a public works position in a small town. Because I had the proper certifications, I was asked to be a lead person. With that responsibility comes the problems one will ultimately face with employees and City Councils. I will be the first to tell you that small towns have politics, just like big cities. But I made adjustments.
After working my way up through three small towns, I finally landed the dream job for the last half of my work life. Believe me, I had to feel my way along. There were times I questioned my decision to change careers. But I learned from each setback and continued.
On a personal level, I’m not too embarrassed to admit that I have a couple failed marriages. Yet, my third and final marriage is strong, long and happy. I had issues in the beginning, but I learned how to change for the better. When one can adjust to become a better human, others around will also adjust, and compromise can occur.
If one doesn’t get discouraged by failures that occur in life and learns from each incident, one can avoid those same mistakes and possibly find better ways to advance successfully.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a writer. I create stories, fiction and memoirs. I find satisfaction in producing tales that provide a moral at the end. I like to give the reader food for thought. I hope they walk away feeling they did not waste their time.
Loneliness dogged me as an adolescent. Moving from state to state and attending different schools in different cultural settings can be intimidating. Having lost the father figure at age seven, and then the mother going through her own personal hell, could easily push an inhibited child to dark places. I was and will be forever grateful to my mom for providing children’s books for me to read. The Story of Ferdinand, Dr. Seuss, A Christmas Carol to name a few gave me happiness in quiet times. I spent hours in drug stores reading magazines like CARtoons, Mad and various comic books. I would go back to my bedroom and rewrite famous poems and stories in my own voice. I could envision others reading my stuff and having joy. It helped me on so many levels; to think I could create. I then found school could be enjoyable. Reading and writing turned a bizarre world into a manageable madness, you could say. For a long time, I blamed my mom for not providing the idyllic life I could see at friends’ houses, with dinners every night and the parents always reminding the children to be in at a certain time, etc.
In hindsight, I give mom credit for giving me those books.
Lastly, another thing we shared together, from an early age, was crossword puzzles. As a writer, what more could one ask than a mother’s love while instilling a love of words in the heart. When somebody says a word that is not often used, I actually get a big smile on my face.
My motto is ” Always tell your story, even if it’s true.”

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

One resource that works for me, that I did not use early in my career as a writer, is groups. I had no exposure to writing groups per se. Mostly, it didn’t occur to me to seek them out. I find that these groups are usually aspiring writers, like me. They are seeking ideas and critique to be better. It is helpful to get differing perspectives. You can help others too, which actually reflects sometimes in your own craft. It can be beneficial.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I have a reputation for having my own personalized voice in my writing. I have been told that it sounds like me. I find that appealing. I also try not to talk over my own voice. I want it to be honest and heartfelt. I hope to be accepted as a palatable writer, yet unique in my presentation. I want folks to get a kick out of anything they read, yet feel it wasn’t a waste of time. .

Contact Info:

• Instagram: paullmike
• Facebook: MikePaull@mikepaullworks

Image Credits

Jeri Lynn Paull